"Those with talent who naturalise today can easily leave the country of adoption for greener pasture tomorrow; it is what these developed countries do to keep them there that really matters.

Between the hard-working stateless man who has spent much of his life toiling on Malaysian soil and the corrupt politician who continues to squander our national wealth, it does not take a genius to distinguish who is the real patriot." By Josh Hong in Malaysiakini

If Malaysian Government had already sent the condolence note to Myanmar,I am sorry for writing this.

If Malaysian Government, GLCs (government Linked companies), NST, TV3, NTV7, RTM and NGOs (esp. government affiliated) had already started a campaign to help Myanmar,please accept myapology for wrongly writing this posting.

We know that we are not Orang Puteh (Whiteman) , no Arab blood and have no Malay-Indonesian blood. We are ALWAYS discriminated in your country.

Never mind if you do not wish to recognize the undocumented workers/migrants and asylum seekers.

During the great disaster in Myanmar, I hope if Malaysian government could do the followings to help us without spending a cent.

Please announce amnesty on all the Myanmar/Burmese undocumented workers/migrants and asylum seekers including those already in the detention camp. (At least if they could work and earn, they could help their families, relatives and friends.)

You could put a time limit for example six months to one year.

It is shameful that you are heartless to continue arresting and some of your agents are harassing them daily.

Dr San Oo Aung

17 Myanmar Illegal Immigrants Held In Kelantan

BERNAMA, RANTAU PANJANG, May 6 (Bernama) — The Anti- Smuggling Unit (UPP) Tuesday arrested 17 Myanmar nationals without valid travel documents in Kampung Kempas, Machang, as they were being smuggled into the country by a syndicate.

Kelantan UPP commander Mazlan Che Hamid said the Myanmar nationals, aged between 16 and 30 years, had been turned over to the Immigration authorities.

He said the van driver, a Malaysian, stopped the vehicle by the roadside and fled after realising that it was being tailed by UPP personnel at 4.30 am.

The UPP personnel had followed the van from Kampung Kedap here, some 40 km from Machang, he said.

Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy and hypocrites are everywhere
This is the world we are living in?
Where all the good people gone?

What is said, is not meant, and what is meant is not done
Smile for the sake of smiling, shake hands for the sake of shaking them
Nothing comes from the heart and soul.

This is the world we are living in
We say culture is important, we need to uphold them
At the same time, we are the one who breaks them, and use it where it suits us only

We are of human race, Homo sapiens, no doubt about that
Religion, ethnicity, caste and creed, now there is a doubt
Sense of belonging, to a group is most important that anything else in the world

Who do we belong to? What we belong to? Why?
Does it matter, if I’m a Jewish, and marry a Muslim?
Doest it matter, if I’m a Christian and converts to Buddhism?

Why it matters to many, and why it does not matter to some?
Why some say, they don’t have to belong to this group, and still live a good life?
The other says that this is what we are, and we should not change this!

What we are changing here? Is it the basic essence of ourselves that we are changing?
Are we changing a way of life or simply going out of this group, to live our own life?
Would this change, changes the balance of the universe forever?

Why the fear, my dear hypocrites of the world?
Have you not changed silently before, and then coming back to re-join?
Even being in the group, you still do not uphold the principles and philosophy of it.

Superficial, the outer layer, that’s what matters
Inner core, is not something that to be seen outside, and this can be forgotten
This is what happening, and this is what perceives to be important

We are unique, and yet we are same in many different ways
We force everyone else to believe, in what we believe in.
We believe that we need to bring back those who sway from this way

It is noble on how we save each other
How noble it can be if what we do, is actually destroying some one else’s happiness
We continue to do this, thinking we are saving them

What we are saving here?
Are we saving ourselves, as by not saving the “drifters” we will be damned?
Damnation of the self that is the greatest fear

What is there to fear?
We are made of flesh and blood bearing the soul that operates the body with our mind
Then where are all this religion, race, caste and creed here?

A way of life, this is how it all started
A guide for the people, to live in peace and harmony in this universe
What this has become now? Wage War to uphold this?

Hypocrites of the world!
Stop this lie and deceit in the name of religion, ethnicity, caste and creed
Don’t you see what this is doing to us, the human soul?

We are becoming soulless creatures, driven by this hypocrisy
We are becoming animals with religion, and culture
Why we are lying to ourselves and others?

Selfishness leads to search and hit the softspots

“Think of national interests”, Suaram told by

unjust leader from the Justice Party

On the protest voiced by Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram)on the Selangor-levy plan, he said local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like Suaram must place priority on national interests and not champion universal human rights and attack the state government for looking after its residents in their own homeland.

Yes, do not champion universal human rights but just look at your party’s name.

Do you stupidly still think that your party is established for justice to DSAI alone? BUT not for the UNIVERSAL JUSTICE?

If not this MB is morbidly suffering from Myopic astigmatism, a condition in which his eye is affected with myopia (Shortsightedness)in one meridian only: that is on foreigners.

He will later start an anti-Foreigner campaigns_

Now he said foreigners took the work of locals and buy the houses.

Soon he will propose to shut down the Kelang Port to stop exporting goods and petroleum so that Malaysian citizens could enjoy the surplus, unsold, exports. Sure, commodity prices would go down because of unsold, un-exported goods.

Soon he would stop all foreign tourists from entering Selangor to reduce traffic congestion and to give more hotel rooms available to local tourists. Hotel room rates would go down up to the level affordable to all the Malaysian citizens.

Soon he would stop all foreign direct investment to give more opportunity to the locals.

Selfish politicians like him would never think globally.

Selfish politicians usually use national interests as a smokeshield to disguise their cruel deeds.

Selfish and weak politicians always try to exploit or hit the soft spots. Khalid dare not exploit on Malaysian old pendatangs so he is looking the blood of fresh pendatangs.

(Sorry Malaysian Chinese and Malaysian Indians for using this insulting words. I myself was labled like that in my own country and here we all are treated unfairly and unjustly as 10th. Grade foreigners amongst fresh pendatangs)

Selfish politicians always use the (Ultra) Nationalistic sentiments to incite or exploit against Foreigners.

Justice Party (I hope Justice for all and not for selected races and citizens only) leader, new Chief Minister Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim said foreign workers living and working in Selangor enjoyed all the state’s infrastructure, like good schools, health facilities and roads and the state was just calling for them contribute something in return.

Former PM Tun Mahathier had also reported to utter these words as a lame excuse when he imposed increased medical fees for the foreigners.

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim is ignorant that legal foreign workers’ children are not allowed at all in any government schools!

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim is ignorant that the government had built 3000 schools only for the illegalimmigrants from Indonesia. (According to NST front page news and photograph of a school)

Even PR holders are denied the good faculties in Public or Government Universities nowadays.

Local students are subsidized using part of our levies and income-taxes.

Even in the expensive private universities, locals are supported using the foreigners’ levies and income-taxes.

Adding salt to that do you know that we need to pay more then locals? And one idiot is asking to charge more on foreigners in the local universities. Is this the Justice?

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim should open his eyes and fight for that injustices and then I am sure the foreign workers would be willing to pay even hundred times more than he proposed.

He is ignorant that Government health facilities always charge THREE TIMES first clast fees to the foreigners while keeping them in the Third Class.

He should fight to charge same rate as locals at hospitals if he wish to charge again in his state.

He came from Justice party: after charging those levies (when the locals earning the same salary are usually exempted from paying income-tax because of low earning.)

Afterall those foreign workers are working for your country, your countrymen’s companies that your citizens owned at least 30% and for your citizens. Where is “Justice” if the workers your citizens employed are forced to pay extra charges or sometimes denied medical treatment?

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim should be banned from claiming that he is from Justice Party if he continue to deny justice for all.

Using state Roads?

Foreigners also pay income-tax or levies.

Even if they use the taxis or busses, they paid the fees that is inclusive of all the Road Tax, Import Duty, Sales Tax, AP Fees, Tool fees etc.

If the Foreigners buy cars are they exempted from above?

So don’t give lame excuses Tun and Tan Seri, this is your country and State. If you want to discriminate on poor foreign workers, just do whatever you like. But don’t give those lame silly excuses. Just “Hit the Soft Spots!” It is safer than exploiting the same citizens.

By the way, your “zero tolerance on squatters” is also targetting the poor.

BANTING: Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) should take a more national approach to foreign worker issues and not attack the state government, says Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.

Khalid said the state government’s proposal to collect RM9 monthly from all migrant workers in the state was aimed at setting up a fund to help provide re-training for local unemployed youths so they could land better jobs.

He said foreign workers living and working in Selangor enjoyed all the state’s infrastructure, like good schools, health facilities and roads and the state was just calling for them contribute something in return.

Well done: Khalid, you have darken your party and opposition.

“Suaram feels that bringing in foreign workers is one of the solutions to human rights problems but they should understand we have to help our own people, too.

“This is a democracy, so we can open up and discuss the matter,” he told reporters after officiating at the closing ceremony of the training for local authorities’ enforcement officers at the Selangor Enforcement Training Centre (Pulapes) in Jugra here yesterday.

On Monday, Suaram executive director Yap Swee Seng hit out at the state government’s proposal, calling it unjust as foreign workers received low wages and were often exploited by employers or recruitment agencies with non-payment, unjust deduction of salary, long working hours and unfair dismissals.

He added that migrant workers were barely surviving and probably in debt after paying exorbitant fees to come to work in Malaysia.

Khalid meanwhile said the RM4,000 in levy and agency charges migrant workers paid was too large a sum, and the state planned to call on the Federal Government to reduce the amount.

He also proposed that a centralised information system be set up to keep an accurate record of foreign workers in the state.

“I was among the people involved in the corporatisation of the system for foreign workers and I can show ways to keep tabs on even the illegal workers,” he said.

Khalid also said the Federal Government should not cast aside suggestions just because they came from opposition parties and should accept the good

“We want to show the federal government how to keep records on illegal workers (Have you use illegals in your old palmoil company?) by having the state levy. I will set up a centralised information system to keep correct records on those who come and work in the state,” he said.

Abdul Khalid said the RM3,000 to RM4,000 charged by migrant worker agencies was high and that for the Selangor government this was not reasonable.

(Then you have heart to extort extra RM 9.00, that will definitely pass onto the poor workers.)

(Have your old company pay the levies for your workers. Afterall Tun said that levies were meant to made the employers expensive to hire foreigners but Tun and all of you close your eyes and look other way round when the poor foreign workers have to pay those money.)

If you are man enough demand part of the levies to be paid to state governments from the immigration or MOF.

He said millions of ringgit were paid by foreign workers to recruiting agencies that brought them to the country and the Malaysian government collected a levy but eventually the agents concerned did not know where the workers were and this “flood of foreign workers” created problems for society.

Although migrant workers, especially the illegal ones, were eventually repatriated by the government, the problem did not seem to end as they returned to the country and the ones who benefited were the travel agents and migrant workers recruitment agencies, Abdul Khalid said.

Opposition leader Wan Azizah unveils bold agenda

Access to equal opportunities

Strengthening race relations

Withdraw Monthly Fee

on Migrant Workers

Wednesday, 26 March 2008

Suaram is deeply disturbed with the plan of the Selangor state government to collect RM10 monthly fee from all migrant workers in the state of Selangor. The new policy was announced by the Chief Minister of the newly formed Selangor state government, Khalid Ibrahim recently during a press interview with Chinese press.

According to the Chief Minister, the money collected will be used for the purpose of setting up a re-training fund for unemployed youths. It aims to equip them with more skills and in a long run reduce the reliance on migrant workers.

The migrant workers community is

one of the most exploited

and most marginalized groups in the society.

They work in conditions described as 3-Ds – dirty, demeaning and dangerous,

and theirs are jobs which the locals shun off.

They receive low wages

and are often exploited by employers

or recruitment agencies for non-payment,

unjust deduction of salary,

long working hours,

unfair dismissal etc.

By taxing the migrant workers

who are barely surviving

and probably in debt in order to pay the exorbitant fees to come to work in Malaysia ,

an extra heavy burden is added on the migrant workers and their families.

And to use the money collected from the migrant workers to re-train local unemployed youth and eventually replace the migrant workers, is scandalous, to say the least.

Even if the monthly fee is to be paid by the employer and not the migrant workers, we are concerned that eventually this fee will be deducted from the migrant worker’s wages one way or another.

The new policy reflects how unsensitized Malaysian political parties,

be they in the opposition

or the government,

are to the plight of migrant workers.

The Parti Rakyat Keadilan (PKR) has espoused the principle of justice and won a huge victory with the pledge to the people to fight against the widening income gap between the “have” and the “have-nots”.

Certainly, taxing the poor migrant workers to assist local unemployed youth, do not measure up to the principle and spirit of justice.

Suaram calls on Chief Minister Khalid Ibrahim to immediately withdraw this unjust policy. We also urge the Chief Minister to consult civil society organizations who are working on migrant workers issues before making any policy decisions in the future.

Pope provokes Muslim anger

by baptising controversial journalist

Magdi Allam is baptised by Pope Benedict XVI

Richard Owen of The Times, in Rome

Pope Benedict XVI has risked (more appropriate to use provoked) a renewed rift with the Muslim world by baptising a converted Muslim born journalist who describes Islam as intrinsically violent and characterised by “hate and intolerance” rather than “love and respect for others”.

In a surprise move at the Easter vigil at St Peter’s on Saturday night, the Pope baptised Magdi Allam, 55, an outspoken Egyptian-born critic of Islamic extremism and supporter of Israel.

Mr Allam’s conversion was kept secret until less than an hour before the service. He took the middle name “Christian” for his baptism.

After the baptism, the Pope said that faith “is a force for peace and reconciliation in the world: distances between people are overcome, in the Lord we have become close (in Christianity).”

However the move revived memories of the Muslim fury which greeted Pope Benedict’s speech at Regensburg University in German in 2006 in which he branded Islam as inherently violent, inhumane and irrational by quoting a Byzantine emperor.

However, in a combative article for Corriere della Sera, the Italian paper of which he is a deputy editor, Mr Allam – who has lived in Italy most of his adult life and has a Catholic wife . . . .

Mr Allam, who was educated at a Salesian Catholic school in Egypt and was one of seven adults baptised during the Easter vigil, which is traditionally used for adult conversion ceremonies.

He said that by baptising him publicly the Pope had “sent an explicit and revolutionary message to a Church that until now has been too cautious in the conversion of Muslims because of the fear of being unable to protect the converted, who are condemned to death for apostasy”.

Muslim groups in Italy said Mr Allam would have done better to have undergone a low key conversion at a local parish. “What amazes me is the high profile the Vatican has given this conversion,” said Yaha Sergio Yahe Pallavicini, deputy head of the Italian Islamic Religious Community.

The Pope called for “solutions that will safeguard peace and the common good“ in Tibet, the Middle East and African regions such as Darfur and Somalia.

He deplored “the many wounds(including you, Pope, had inflicted now on Muslims) that continue to disfigure humanity in our own day. These are the scourges of humanity, open and festering in every corner of the planet, (at St Peter’s on Saturday night) , although they are often ignored and sometimes deliberately concealed; wounds (including this that Pope himself had inflicted) that torture the souls and bodies of countless of our brothers and sisters“.

He called for “an active commitment to justice (from your Christian point of view) in areas bloodied by conflict and wherever the dignity of the human person (dignity of Islam not included) continues to be scorned and trampled”.

Last week, the Pope broke his silence on Tibet, calling for for an end to violence and urging “dialogue and tolerance.” But Beijing brushed off the appeal, declaring there was “no tolerance for criminals, who will be punished by the law.” Neither the Easter message nor the Good Friday meditations specifically mentioned China, a reflection of the Vatican’s desire not to upset its dialogue with Beijing over the fate of the country’s Catholics.

OIC summit full of rhetorics

The 11th summit of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) is being held at Dakar, Senegal amid tight security and the usual rhetoric that accompanies such meetings. The leaders of the Muslim nations which are member states of the organization are still struggling to offer solutions to the immediate problems that affect the Muslim world while the situation within the conference rooms does not augur well for the organization’s new charter.

Foreign Affairs Minister, Sheik Tidiane Gadio, urged the senior officials of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), gathered Saturday in Dakar, to draw up a consensual new OIC charter likely to be accepted by all the 57 member states of this organization.

His urgent call defines the underlining frustration that has clouded the organizing of this conference for the second time in Senegal in 17 years. On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of the OIC nations were still debating on the modalities to adopt the new charter but reports indicated that this will be delayed for yet another term.

It might be possible that the new charter will be debated in Egypt where the next OIC summit (the 12th Summit) will probably be held according to information grasped in the corridors of the conference.

The failure to finalize the new charter indicates the deep trouble that characterizes organizations such as the OIC, which does not have the structures to behave like the United Nations (UN) and is not as united as the Arab League (AL). The OIC, after Senegal, will remain a hybrid organization that is trying to adapt to the changes in the world, particularly the globalization issues and the centralization of the world trade under the western dominated World Trade Organization (WTO).

Migration, which is a terrible headache among member countries of the OIC, will also be on the agenda of the 11th summit thanks to efforts made by former Senegalese Minister Mme Ndioro Ndiaye who is the assistant Director General of the OIM Organization Internationale pour les Migrations.

Migration is a growing issue in the world today and the former Minister is pressing for the OIC to set an agenda that will allow for the member countries to ease migration. She said that migration among OIC member states should be treated as an important matter and must be made easier.

Countries like Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and even Egypt has tough migratory rules that do not allow the smooth transition of migrant workers on their soil. It is probably in the spirit of Muslim brotherhood that such migratory rules could be downgraded in order to allow for the integration of foreign migrants in OIC member states.

The OIC meeting is being held under tight security, necessary at times for head of states but useless for foreign and local journalists covering the event. This summit has seen an upgrading of the security process since its beginning on the 8th of the month with various badges and passes required for journalists to access areas that are considered ‘secured’ for foreign dignitaries.

This defeats the purpose to have all heads of states under one roof and makes them unavailable to the local or international press on claims that their security is at stake. These leaders owe the people an explanation on why the OIC is still an organization that has not yet found its purpose and is still struggling to decide on a new charter.

From Pakistan to Senegal, the people of the OIC member states are asking why the organization has failed them in many ways and has reached its 11th summit without even considering the security of the people.

If the summit is about the security of the head of states alone then who will decide on the security of the people in countries? Certainly in places where the enemies of Islam are having a free hand at killing innocents, raping women and controlling Muslim lands such as in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.

On the other hand, Souleymane Gano Senegalese journalist attached to the Agence de Presse Senegalaise (APS) told WFOL that it was a great pleasure that an African country organizes the OIC meeting; this allows us to develop our infrastructures. Part of Dakar is now changed with news infrastructures, new roads and certainly new hotels.

This offers temporary employment to the local people but also it allows the country to develop its friendship and cooperation with muslim nations.

This cooperation can help the country to develop further.

‘Yes there will be some benefits with temporary employments, contacts and new investments in the country. The international and muslim nations media are now zooming on Senegal and this helps and this portrays the good prospect for the country.’ he said, adding that it also shows that Senegal is living and alive and is trying to develop and this is good for Africa. There are not only wars or famine in Africa but there is hope and with people who are willing to work for development and the youth can believe in this hope.

Senegal looks beset by too many problems that have forced it to postpone the OIC summit from 2006 to 2008. The 10th summit was held in Malaysia in 2003 and the 11th summit was to take place in 2006 but delays due to the current economic situation in Senegal hampered the progress in the infrastructural development of the country for the summit.

Now that the summit is on, the country still seem to be struggling in the organization of the event though on the bright side it is the hospitality of the Senegalese people that has comforted the guests and foreign journalists visiting the country.